GUEST OPINION: Starve the government beast or every last dime will be spent

By Thomas K. Bullen

Friday, October 25, 2013

Starve the beast to tame it? A zoological question needing answers? How to analyze the animalistic appetites of Washington D.C. politicians? Is starvation, i.e. sequestration, the only effective approach to contain government spending at Washington, D.C.’s political zoo?

Or will politicians continue to obsessively spend to maintain their handout constituency?

Those from the for-profit world find incredulous the not-for-profit government mentality. All is topsy-turvy. Instead of emphasis on cost cutting, the objective is spending! The “mission” comes first. Whatever the cause du jour, unlimited spending must be slavishly applied.

Not a good result? No problem, spending is the main objective, to suave the conscience, to gladden the constituency.

Mission managers, i.e. government bureaucrats, also seek to assuage their own animal wants. Salaries must be big, work load light, empires ever growing. This too is zoological. Taking care of number one is the law of the jungle. Spending for the “mission” must also be lavishly rewarded even though exorbitant spending is opposite the cost cutting or profit increasing goals of the free market.

Then too, if “mission” goals are to be met, revenue must be raised. Whether taxes or institutionalized fund raising, staff are needed. Big staffs and many desks are also visible badges for the mission. The case is then more easily made for big pay and big offices for a big job. Accordingly, government bureaucracies always grow.

Although maximizing revenue is the first measure of bureaucratic success, the second is just as important, spending every last dime. If anything were left over it would mean revenue solicitations were overblown — or worse, the mission was withering. So, all must be spent. Administration of spending must also be amply rewarded. No day at the zoo is completely satisfying unless the beast is well fed.

Outlandish pay rates for top “non-profit” officials inevitably surface. Public outrage is then palpable even though all overpaid bureaucrats claim sainthood. Whatever their pay, they say it’s commensurate with the “goodness” of their “mission”. The greater good is always deserving.
Similarly, bureaucrats defend to the death their staff numbers. Everyone is vital to the mission. Not surprisingly, big staffs are justification for big pay checks.

But if budget “cut” becomes the byword, or that new terror, sequestration, looms, what follows is black magic. At the local school level, football and band must go. At the federal level, deviousness is perfected. Little children will go hungry, or at least no longer tour the White House. Airline waits will become insufferable. Parks close. Arrival of ICBMs is imminent.

But if cuts become grudgingly inevitable, just as in war, bodies disappear. The departed don’t complain — they’re either dead or otherwise out of hearing. (Some however, return from the dead with back pay.) The mission managers, the survivors, blithely continue. Although temporarily starved, the beast carries on.

Revealed is animalistic adaptability. There is survivalist reaction to whatever threat presented. The Russians adapted to 60 years of governmental planning. But no matter how worthy the Red mission, waste and bureaucratic empire building was the result. Meanwhile across the pond, the Americans edge ever closer to all-pervasive government, Obamacare the stalking horse. Barely at the margin is U. S. private enterprise to produce the basics, groceries and housing. China has the rest.

“Change” comes to America. Instead of championing entrepreneurs, down and outers are raised up. “Fairness” and “equality” require it. Government will provide. Spending is justified for any number of missions. The zoo grows larger. Whatever the problem, government is at the ready. The beast continues to feed. Can it be starved or are there now too many with feed buckets?